A Study On Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry Into English From A Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

On a brief review of the studies on the English translation of classical Chinese poetry in nearly a century, it can be concluded that all the studies are conducted from the following several aspects. The first one is to discuss the relationship between the poetry’s form and content, including literal translation, free translation; metrical method, prosaic method, theory of similarity in form and in spirit; beauty in sound, in form and in meaning; and translation criteria in terms of pluralism and complementarity. The second one lays emphasis on the translatability and translation history. The third is the critical studies of the English translation of classical Chinese poetry. In this field, scholars state their ideas on the English translation of classical Chinese poetry by criticizing or appraising some translator’s specific translation versions. The fourth is study on the interrelationship between classical Chinese poetry translation and other disciplines including Cross-cultural Communication, Relative Theory, Cognitive Linguistics and Reception Theory, etc. They conduct the studies on the classical Chinese poetry English translation from these perspectives. However, few have adopted Verschueren’s adaptation theory to conduct the studies of the complex process of making adaptations in translating classical Chinese poetry into English, in particular, no discussion on language, communication and culture adaptation in classical Chinese poetry have been mentioned.The author conducts the study and analysis on the English translation of classical Chinese poetry on the basis of Verschueren’s adaptation theory from the perspective of social background, culture and cognition, observes the specific characteristics and complexity of classical Chinese poetry, and explores various adaptations made by the translator’s in the dynamic process of translating classical Chinese poetry into English from the aspects of linguistic, contextual and the salience of adaptation, seeks the underline factors of how these adaptations influence the quality of the renderings in the process of translating classical Chinese poetry through comparing various English versions. The author tries to offers a systematic and integrated framework of the English translation of classical Chinese poetry, so as to enrich the study on the English translation of classical Chinese poetry.